At sometime in the first year of your first child’s life you will forget.  Trust me, it happened to me.  This kid, and the two that followed in the next few years have irrevocably changed my life.  There is no doubt that I am forever altered by them being here with me, but I still forget.

What will you forget?  You will forget how much you prayed for them to be here.  I know I did.  My wife and I had prayed for years that we would have children, and then that they would be healthy.  Then when we finally get what we’ve prayed for…we forgot.

I watched the following video on my iPhone while hanging out in the living room.  At the key moment when the entire video gets serious, my 6 year old and 4 year old come running into the living room squealing and throwing toys in laughter.  I could barely make out the audio, but I didn’t need to.  It helped me remember.

Check out www.ninetynineballoons.com for more information about Eliot.

We wish you a Merry Christmas from Jonathan, Starr, Ryan, Dylan and Lauryn Cliff.

Here is something I found posted recently by Mark Driscoll on The Resurgence Blog.  It’s fantastic and a great reminder to all the Dad’s out there!  Merry Christmas!

’Tis the season for Dad to drop the holiday ball, stress out as the money is being spent for presents, and miss yet another providential opportunity to lovingly lead his family. So, this blog is intended to help dads not fall into the same old rut of holiday humdrum, sitting on the couch watching football and eating carbs, but rather intentionally plan out the upcoming holiday season. Our children grow quickly and if we miss the sacred moments God opens up for us to connect with and bless our families, everyone suffers and we set in motion generations of missed opportunity.Dad needs…

1. a plan for the holidays to ensure his family is loved and memories are made. Dad, what’s your plan?

2. to check the local guides for what’s going on to make fun holiday plans for the family.

3. to carve out time for sacred events and experiences to build family traditions that are fun and point to Jesus. Dad, is your calendar ready for December?

4. to not let the stress of the holidays, including money, cause him to be grumpy with Mom or the kids. Dad, how’s your joy?

5. to give experiences and not just gifts. Dad, what special memories can you make this holiday season?

6. to manage the extended family and friends during the holidays. Dad, who or what do you need to say “no” to?

7. to ensure his family is giving generously during the holidays. Dad, who in need is your family going to adopt and bless?

8. to schedule a big Christmas daddy date with his daughter. Dad, what’s your big plan for the fancy daddy date?

9. to schedule guy time with his son. Dad, what are you and your son going to do that is active, outdoors, and fun?

10. to help Mom get the house decorated. Dad, are you really a big help to Mom with getting things ready?

11. to ensure some holiday smells and sounds. Dad, is Christmas music on the iPod, is the tree up, and can you smell cookies and cider in your house?

12. to snuggle up and watch some fun shows with the kids, especially the little ones. Dad, is the DVR set?

13. to take the family on a drive to see Christmas lights while listening to music and sipping cider. Dad, is it mapped out?

14. to help Mom get the kids’ rooms decorated. Dad, do the little kids get lights or a small tree in their room?

15. to read about Jesus and pray over his kids. Dad, how’s your pastoral work going with each of your kids?

16. to repent of being lazy, selfish, grumpy, or just dumping the holidays on Mom. Dad, are you a servant like Jesus to your family?

HT: Mark Driscoll | TheResurgence.

This Christmas my family and I are using the Countdown to Christmas game, and enjoying our every Sunday Advent candles and readings.  We’re doing much of what we’ve done as a family in years past (see HERE and HERE.)  The main objective for our family during the Christmas season is to create anticipation about the coming Savior, not the gifts.  We talk all month about how the people before Jesus were waiting for Him, how they needed to be redeemed, and how they anticipated the return of a King. Everything is about Jesus.  The Jesus candle is in the center of our Advent Candles, Jesus is the reason why we exchange gifts, the Birth of Jesus is the answer to the prayers of God’s people, and there is no other reason to celebrate Christmas if you take out Jesus!

This year our family prayer is that we’ll see Jesus in the midst of everything else we partake in during this Holiday season.  I know that my children will be experiencing Christmas parties at school, they will be inundated with toy commercials on Disney, they will see countless Christmas light decorations, eat delicious Christmas cookies, watch Christmas movies, and enjoy this fun kid-friendly time of year.  In the midst of this I want to help them find Jesus.  I’m not talking about finding the actual “Baby Jesus” in the nativity scene, but finding the things that point to Christ.  Everything points to Him, if we will only look closely.

We’ve already talked about how our excitement about being out of school is similar to the excitement God’s people felt about the coming Savior.  The lights on our candles light up a dark room, in the same way the presence of Christ lights up a dark world.  I know, I know… it’s a stretch, but I want my kids to see that Jesus is in everything we do at Christmas.  He’s really there.  Just look closer…

What steps are you taking to make sure your family finds Jesus this year?

HT IMAGE: Bizarro

Over the past 90 days my wife and I have been pouring all our energy into completely reading the Bible through.  I’m talking Genesis to Revelations in 90 days.  Cover to cover!  In actuality, we crunched the numbers and think it was more like 92 days.  So sue me!

It was quite the experience and not something I made big news of while I was actually reading it.  Didn’t want to NOT do it, then have to look stupid.  By the way, that’s wisdom right there! (If you follow me on twitter @jonathancliff then you might have seen a few cryptic “35 of 90″ tweets here and there.  Make sense, now?)

I’ve read the Bible through a few times in my life, most recently in bible school; but never in 90+ days.  Let me sum up my expereince by saying, “Whew!”

Here are my takeaways, having finished last Friday:

• I’ve never spent so much time doing a project over 90 days.  It’s exhausting to do the same 45 minutes of reading every single day for so long.  I wish I could say it’s a habit I could keep up, but it’s not.  I just don’t normally have the attention span to do this.
• Doing it with my wife was key.  I can’t tell fully explain in this paragraph how cool it was to walk this journey through the bible with Starr.  Not to mention being accountable to each other each and every day.
• I learned that my wife is a slow reader, who knew?
• I also learned that I’m hyper-competitive.  Even when reading the Bible.  I could never stand to be finished after Starr, I just had to win my daily Bible reading contest.  Even if it was only in my head.
• Reading the entire Bible through in such a short time frame is comparative to flying over a forest.  I didn’t get to spend much time looking at any one tree, instead seeing the boundaries of the entire forest in one fell swoop!
• Reading through Leviticus was hard.  Crazy hard!
• What were my favorite books to read?  Easy.  Genesis and Acts.
• When you spend 70+ days reading the Old Testament, the Gospels come as a ray of sunshine.  It helped me see the beauty of Jesus’ arrival on the scene.  He came just in time, and redeemed everything that was wrong with creation.
• The word I’ve really taken away from this experience is, “Story.”  The story of the Bible is such a powerful story of Sin.  How Sin ruined God’s original story, and the story of how Sin was defeated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The story is powerful.

If you ever want to do something to help gain a healthy perspective on this Story of life, I can’t more highly recommend taking the 90 day challenge.  Go find a friend, and start today!